Chapter Forty-nine

The Joining

Emer woke, joyous at the way it had been between them last night. She stood, stretching, and took in her surroundings. Legolas had gone off somewhere.

She walked to the edge of the flet and drew the branches aside, taking a deep breath at the beauty that met her. She laid a hand over her stomach.

"I think you have grown overnight, little one," she said softly. "Luthan, perhaps this place will be your home, this wondrous place, it would suit you to grow up here among these golden trees, for your name means 'golden-hearted.' And so you are to me, the greatest treasure that ever was. I cannot wait to see you. I hope that we can stay here, here it is safe, and you will be surrounded by love and protection. But someday I will show you Mirkwood the Silent, where I come from, it is very different from this place, yet also beautiful."

Emer could barely contain her happiness, today she and Legolas would be joined. They would not ask Elrond now to perform the ceremony, his heart was too heavy at Arwen's disappearance. A shadow crossed Emer's face, if Luthan were ever to vanish it would tear the heart out of her. For now he was safe and rode under her heart.

"I will sing to you, a song of Gondor, which mothers sing to their children. It is a little sad, for the lives of Men are short, fleeting moments compared to our own."

She sat, her legs dangling over the edge of the platform, and sang.

Once you had gold, once you had silver

Then came the rains out of the blue

Ever and always, always and ever

Time gave both darkness and dreams to you.

Now you can see, Spring becomes Autumn

Leaves become gold, falling from view

Ever and always, always and ever

No one can promise a dream come true

Time gave both darkness and dreams to you.

What is the dark, shadows around you

Why not take heart, in the new day?

Ever and always, always and ever

No one can promise a dream for you

Time gave both darkness and dreams to you . . .

~*~

Legolas waited for Emer near the banks of the river, listening to its song. Elodin and Vanya stood by, as witnesses. Elodin would preside over their joining. It was a simple affair, yet deeply meaningful.

Legolas watched as Emer appeared and came toward them. Her hair shone, and a ring of flowers sat brightly on her brow. Legolas could not help but smile at her beauty and her obvious happiness.

They stood before each other, hand in hand, as Elodin read the Lay of Joining in the Elven tongue, and looked into each other's eyes. The sonnet's Elodin read spoke of the great love of Thingol and Melian, who stood together long years under the enchantment of love before running off together.

They were given a cup of wine to drink together, and it was passed to Elodin and Vanya, the Cup of Joy. Afterwards it was destroyed, that none else may drink from it.

They knelt, facing each other, and Elodin drew a knife and cut a deep gash across the palm of Emer's right hand and Legolas' left. Their palms were bound together, fingers interlaced, so that their blood mingled, and Elodin tied a silver cord around their wrists, symbolic of the unseen ties that now bound them.

Legolas knew not how long they knelt together so, for the joining seems to those who undergo it to be a moment out of time, and theirs alone. Their lips met, and he kissed her long, while their blood melded, their fingers wound together. She sighed with happiness and laid her head on his shoulder while Elodin untied the silver cord.

Legolas took from Emer's hair the crown of flowers, replacing it with a garland of green stones from Mirkwood, a symbol that he was now hers and she was part of his family, for all his family's heraldry was in the filigree and etchings of the silver leaves between the green stones. The taking of the flowers also symbolized the loss of innocence. Her eyes shone when he placed it on her head.

"Joyous union," said Elodin, and Legolas embraced Emer. Legolas thanked Elodin and Vanya for taking part in the rites. A horse waited nearby to bear them off for one night alone.

They rode deep into Lorien, stopping as they wished, until they found a pond surrounded by willow trees. The trees were ancient and stooped over the water, their fronds trailing across the surface as if blessing it. Beneath their shade, Emer and Legolas hid themselves away. It was as if no one else existed anymore to her, her heart was full of him, and the boundless joy she had felt when they had first run off together was magnified, now that they were joined.

They swam, and ate when they wanted, and talked for long hours, and Emer was happy, impossibly happy, just to be with him.

~*~

Deagol crept round the trunks of trees, oh this was a horrible nasty place full of wicked Elves, Elves on the ground, Elves in the trees, always they were singing, and it hurt his ears so that he sat with his hands splayed over them, rocking back and forth in some unseen place, avoiding their bright gazes, and bright voices, and noise.

Deagol followed most closely the Elven girl, the girl who had a shiny net of silver and green in her hair now, oh Deagol wanted and coveted it, but Legolas, cruel Legolas, was always nearby, pawing at her, and Deagol watched them cleave to each other, fingering the shiny leaves around his neck that he had taken from the girl, but never the chance came to take the pretty thing in her hair now.

O, the Dark Lord was cruel, cruel to force him here, where all was hurtful and wicked, except for the cool ponds full of fat juicy fish, and Deagol ate his fill. He would leave soon, the Dark Lord could not make him stay here forever in this horrid place.

~*~

Late that night, Vanya and Elodin were on the watch, keeping secure the border of Lindorinand.

"What troubles you, Vanya?" Elodin suddenly asked.

"I was just thinking about the joining of the two Elves today, and of the sonnet you spoke to them. I could understand little of it. Will you tell it to me?"

Weddings in the Horde were brief affairs in which weapons were exchanged and a pledge of loyalty and love was made. Vanya had never seen a wedding of the sort they had witnessed today, and it left her with a strange warmth. She could not seem to stop thinking about it, the way they had drawn together after the cutting of their hands, as if they were one being and nothing could separate them.

"I would be happy to say it again," Elodin answered. He said again the words he had said before Legolas and Emer, in the Common tongue.

Sorrow was beautiful, but her beauty was the beauty of the moonlight shining through the leafy branches of the trees in the wood, and making little pools of silver here and there on the soft moss below. When Sorrow sang, her notes were like the sweet call of the nightingale, and in her eyes was the unexpectant gaze of one who has ceased to look for coming gladness. She could weep in tender sympathy with those who wept, but to rejoice with those who rejoiced was unknown to her.

Joy was beautiful too, but his was the radiant beauty of the summer morning. His eyes still held the glad laughter of children, and his hair had the glint of the sunshine's kiss. When Joy sang, his voice soared upward as the lark's, and his step was the step of the conqueror who has never known defeat. He could rejoice with those who rejoiced, but to weep with those who wept was unknown to him.

"But we can never be united," said Sorrow wistfully.

"No, never." And Joy's eyes shadowed as he spoke. "My path lies through sunlit meadows, the sweetest roses bloom for my gathering, and the bluebirds and thrushes await my coming to pour forth their most joyous lays."

"My path," said Sorrow, turning slowly away, "leads through the darkening woods, with moon-flowers only shall my hand be filled, farewell, Joy, farewell."

Even as she spoke, a oneness grew between them, and a great awe stole over them, and they sank to their knees in the presence of love.

"All my sorrow is melting away to a deathless love and gladness," said she.

"Sorrow with you must be sweeter than any joy I have ever known," said he.

"We are one," they cried in gladness, and hand in hand they passed out into the world, as the winter bleakness and the summer gladness, sorrowful and rejoicing, as one.

At the end of their watch, Vanya and Elodin returned to the tent city of the Horde, near the dwelling of Elrond. They stood over their sleeping son and smiled. He had made many friends among the Elven children here already, and one of them slept beside him, a small bow and arrow nearby. A dark haired child who could be Tolar's brother.

Vanya took Elodin's hand, and they went back outside. "I think still on the words you said earlier, the words of the Lay of Joining. I do not tell you often enough how I love you, Elodin, and how it feels knowing I must part from you one day. When Tolar is an old man, you will still be young, yet if I were to gain the gift of immortality, even that would not be enough time with you."

She kissed him with great passion, and laughed at his stunned expression at her outburst of affection. Warriors valued love all the more, because their life was fleeting and their mortality defined their very existence. She had never told him how she had felt all these years, and now, when the Great War was coming, she felt a relief that he knew at last.

Disclaimer: The song used in this chapter is by Enya.